Rag & Bone / Fall 2014 RTW

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In the past few seasons, plenty of designers have celebrated the children of the nineties but few have touched on the Pandora’s box of fashion that was the eighties: Remember acid-wash jeans? And the endless Technicolor stream of Bill Cosby’s Coogi sweaters? These were just some of the things on Marcus Wainwright and David Neville of Rag & Bone’s smorgasbord of inspiration for fall 2014, not to mention a nod to English military gear of the same era, first reappropriated by cult Manchester bands like the Stone Roses. “It’s eighties but not in a Dynasty kind of way,” said Wainwright backstage before the show.

Of course none of those references were to be taken literally, because the real note that Wainwright and Neville struck with their new collection was the thumping beat of now. Using the masculine codes that first put them on the map, they reimagined familiar menswear tropes starting with the outerwear, including a cropped parka jacket made in satin crepe that had just the right inky black matte finish. In fact there were a great many interesting things happening at the surface of the clothes, and one nuanced black-and-white brushed wool biker jacket had a particularly warm and inviting hand. Ditto for the cropped Cowichan sweater that was hand-knitted on a reservation in British Columbia, and the perfect antidote to a polar vortex. Eighties babies were bound to recognize the slinkier swirling knits created in collaboration with Coogi, though they were spun with a modern urban palette. On the other hand, you’d be hard-pressed to register the high-waisted, hand-painted pants as acid-wash mom jeans, given their graphic Pollock-like splatter.

Track back another 30 years to the 1950s, though, and you’re closer to the mood that resonated most on the runway. Mechanic’s overalls and bowling shirts that came emblazoned with each model’s name were the kind of thing that a Pink Lady would readily pinch from her T-Bird boyfriend. The duo joked that there isn’t room in their stores for an embroidery service, so the charming pieces are likely to come completely blank. Perhaps it’s because they know that their cool city-dwelling girl likes clothes that, ultimately, she can make her own.